My Solicitor is vey friendly with opposing Solicitor

No you shouldn't worry about it at all. I would have thought it quite normal for them to be friendly with people they probably see every week of the year. It may even lead to a greater desire to beat his/her friend!
 
Solicitors often know each other if they practice in the same geographical area or same area of law. Will not affect the quality of th eir representation
 
Standard practice.

I'd be worried if the *weren't* cordial to each other.
 
Thanks guys for your responses.

I queried my solicitor about his 'over friendly' approach with the opposing side and I got a firm dressing down. 'I will not have a client tell me how to run my practice and will not always cooperate with everything you ask me to do'. That pretty much told me!

A bit of back ground - got a discovery order on my ex spouse (going through a divorce). They lied on the discovery order. When I approached the subject of getting a forensic accountant on the case my solicitor thought it OTT.

She wrote again to the ex's Solicitor and our only reply back was, 'we cannot deal with this matter now as we are going on holidays'!!!!!!!

This has been three months ago and we have still heard nothing. Yet my Solicitor tells me they speak to the opposing Solicitor regularly in Court. And here's me thinking they were still on holidays!!
 
Forensic accountants are expensive. Unless assetsa re large here it might be better to leave it to th e solicitors to work it out
 
Thanks guys for your responses.

I queried my solicitor about his 'over friendly' approach with the opposing side and I got a firm dressing down. 'I will not have a client tell me how to run my practice and will not always cooperate with everything you ask me to do'. That pretty much told me!
!!

I would be changing my solicitor, if anyone spoke to me that way I would be sure that they wouldn't be getting any of my money.
 
I would be changing my solicitor, if anyone spoke to me that way I would be sure that they wouldn't be getting any of my money.

Why?
What's wrong with what they said? sounds more assertive than rude.
 
As a practising accountant, I would be shocked if a client saw fit to question whether it was proper for me to be friendly with say, a tax inspector.
 
In contentious situations, I tend to be very frank and open with clients about my dealings with other professionals, both on our side where I am the design team or inspection team leader, as well as on the other side, where I prefer communication to be open and transparent at all levels.

In this regard, I prefer e-mail communications, as opposed to huddles in hallways, but that is part of what I do - I set things up so that clients legal representatives can "do the deal" that needs to be done, my work adding pressure to perform on the other side.

Deal-makers, whether legal or property (estate agents) generally preserve their cordiality towards each other to allow the best chance of a favourable reception for their clients proposed deals or settlements - it confers no benefit on anyone if an entrenched attitude leads to three days in court at considerable expense when a morning would do.

The trouble is that clients can be emotionally involved in the proceedings and may be looking for revenge, a penalty against the other party, or the stiffest sentence and this is precisely the wrong way to present with a judge or the other side, who can form the opinion that you are unreasonable and possible a less than frank witness.

So therefore, clients should let the professionals do their work, but where solicitors are concerned its no harm to keep on their case to get people to the table - otherwise just let them sort themselves out in terms of their professional relations with the other side.
 
During my court-case some years ago I discovered that my solicitor was trying to strike a deal with my ex-husbands solicitor which was not in my best interest at all. I would advise to be very careful with the solicitor concerned. I would not trust them. There main issue is to get the case sorted and there money earned. The more times the case is adjourned the greater the expense for the cliet.
 
I thought it was a case of clients instruct, solicitors act - regardless of their personal dealings and relationships with their colleagues?
 
The bottom line in this instance is that the client is asking the solicitor to do something and the solicitor is "flipping the bozo bit" with them. They appear to be forgetting that their client is a customer. If they don't think that something is the right thing to do, then they should explain to their customer why, in their professional opinion, it is the wrong thing to do.

If the client declines their advise, the solicitor ought to accept the instruction from their client, or resign. In no circumstance should the solicitor get shirty with the client and tell them that they won't have a client tell them what to do. Their job is to accept instruction from the client and act on it.

We have gotten some awful advise from solicitors (and other professionals) which if we had just accepted their word that it was normal and standard we would have been in terrible situations. Solicitors, like any other professional (or tradesperson) can be good and bad.

If you don't like how the solicitor is treating you, you should fire them and make a complaint to the law society. Equally, if you are a solicitor and don't like how a client is treating you, fire the client.

Simples.
 
They appear to be forgetting that their client is a customer.
Well, they say we shouldn't tar everyone with the one brush (and of course that's true) but there are major issues with the legal professions in this country. It has taken the IMF to tell us that we can't have them 'self-regulate' themselves.

However, it's such a fundamental function in any country - the client has to be exactly that - a 'client' - and treated as a client. Not shady dealings being done behind their backs.

Clubman said:
I thought it was a case of clients instruct, solicitors act - regardless of their personal dealings and relationships with their colleagues?
In theory - and taking an ethical standpoint, then your absolutely right. However, do you believe that it plays out that way given the current state of the legal profession?
 
It has taken the IMF to tell us that we can't have them 'self-regulate' themselves.

Don't take IMF statements as Gospel, these are the guys who have told us to increase VAT to 23% even though the last increase to a 'mere' 21.5% caused serious damage to the economy and ended up having to be reversed.

In relation to ethics, I would be more concerned with a situation where a solicitor, accountant or other professional is servile to the whims and prejudices of a client, and not sufficiently assertive to be prepared to tell the client what they don't want to hear. This is the sort of situation where rules end up being bent and laws broken.
 
I recall one distinquished counsel tell a client who wanted a particular (irrelevant ) question asked " if you employ a singer you do not tell him how to sing the song.
 
There's a difference between taking instructions from a client and taking dictation.;)

Dictating clients get shown the door as if they are dictating to me, why do they need my advice at all?
 
Hi,

I'm far from a dictatorial type person; respect the law 100% and would never in a million years think of telling a Solicitor or Barrister their job. I'm an average lay person. I don't know the Law so I am relying on the advise of the Legal person and hope they will put me right to the best of their ability.

I did on this occasion happen to mention to my Solicitor about the overly friendly approach to the opposing side. He took my comments very badly.

Keep in mind that the opposition lead us all to believe that they were on holidays. That was three months ago! My Solicitor has told me that he has spoken to them on numerous times in Court.

I happened to ask why they had not responded to our letters even though they were obviously well back from their break. This didn't go down well either.

I simply asked - maybe we are being too friendly with these guys, lets get a bit tougher. He blew his lid over that!
 
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